Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Street in New York City, you're Inside the ICE House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision in global business, the dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution for global growth for more than 225 years.
Speaker 1:
Each week, we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now at the NYSE and at ICE's 12 exchanges and seven clearing houses around the world. Now here's your host, Josh King, head of communications at Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
Every day, Intercontinental Exchange serves as host to dozens of events. Most held here at the Big Board Club of the New York Stock Exchange. Those guests will now be able to take in a brand new art exhibition that over the past couple of weeks have filled. One of the main thoroughfares. The title of the installation is the topic of our episode today, Art and Money. The works are the creation of three artists, John Borne and our guests in the ICE house today, Mister E and King Saladeen, who've made a name for themselves as artists who understand the business of art and the art of money.
Josh King:
We've often sat down with CEOs and founders of businesses to discuss how an idea or a passion led to the formation of a company. Today, we'll be exploring how two artists followed their passion and honed their craft over years of hard work, while at the same time built a market for their creations. Our conversation with Mr E and King Saladeen about their craft and the nexus of art and money, right after this.
Speaker 1:
Inside the ICE House is presented this week by the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure, or the Safety Network. Safety is the backbone of the ICE platform providing high security, high speed, direct market access and trade execution capabilities to over 150 global markets. Safety connects data and analytics for more than 600 proprietary and third party market sources. More on safety later in the show.
Josh King:
Our guests today, King Saladeen and Mister E, are here to check out their work that is now on display at the New York Stock Exchange and join us inside the ICE house. Mister E is a contemporary American artist based in Delray, Florida, and over the last decade has become recognized internationally for his colorful interpretation of the US $100 bill, the Benny Jr. King Saladeen was raised in west Philadelphia and is still based in Philly. While art was his lifelong passion, his full-time pursuit of art began just seven years ago. Welcome, gentlemen.
King Saladeen:
Welcome. How you doing? Good morning.
Mister E:
Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Josh King:
So guys, the installation, you'll explain more about what this is, but the installation is now complete. We've received already overwhelmingly positive feedback. Are you happy with the way Art and Money's come out?
King Saladeen:
It's amazing, man. I'm just actually honored to be in this whole building. Then my art being in here is just icing on the cake. It's crazy.
Josh King:
But your art is all over the place in ...
King Saladeen:
But ...
Josh King:
But what?
King Saladeen:
Not in the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh King:
Mister E, how do you feel like the exhibition is?
Mister E:
It's amazing to walk down these hallways, that such important and iconic people have walked down before us and see our art. It's really a humbling experience.
Josh King:
So Saladeen, your real name is Rahim Saladeen Johnson.
King Saladeen:
Yes.
Josh King:
How did people start calling you King?
King Saladeen:
It's a long story. I was actually staying with one of my friends on their couches in LA when I left Philly just to try to get into galleries and see what the art world was about. She had pulled me to the side and was just saying, "Yo, I think you need to just add something on the front of that Saladeen."
King Saladeen:
I'm like, "What?"
King Saladeen:
She was saying, "King, you a king."
King Saladeen:
I'm like, "Nobody's going to call me a king."
Josh King:
I'm a king. I'm Josh.
King Saladeen:
That's dope because that's your last name.
Josh King:
That's right.
King Saladeen:
But to put that in front of a name where I'm from, it's kind of egotistical. So I was looking at it like nobody's ever going to call me that because, I don't know, it didn't feel right when I first heard it. But I did my first art show and I tagged the name King Saladeen onto the flyer and everything else, and it was just a huge success. After that, I was like, "It got could ring to it."
Josh King:
It worked for another hoop player.
King Saladeen:
Yeah. King James.
Josh King:
What do you think of his move to the Lakers? You know LA.
King Saladeen:
I think it was a lot of business, a lot of business. I don't know. I can't wait to watch him next year. I know that.
Josh King:
The very fact, King Saladeen, that you are an artist is because part of your basketball career got derailed because of injury, right?
King Saladeen:
Yeah. Well actually, injury, and it was the passion to come home to do art. I was playing basketball. I was getting hurt every week. I had electric stem. I was going to class with crutches.
Josh King:
Where were you playing?
King Saladeen:
I was playing in Johnson County, Kansas. So that was a very big division. Well, it was a Juco that was leading to division one. So it was just really the passion to just follow my dream. Basketball was kind of my dream, but it was really because of my environment, everybody played basketball and I was tall. I was good at it. So it was like, that's the thing to do it kept me out a lot of trouble. It helped me with business. It helped me do a lot. Just learn how to be a team player.
Josh King:
You grew up following the 6ers?
King Saladeen:
Of course. Allen Iverson. See, I grew up in Iverson area, in the Allen Iverson era.
Josh King:
I grew up in the Julius Erving era. We all had one of them.
King Saladeen:
Well, it was definitely different. It's starting to come back, though. With the new team, Philly's coming back, so we doing good. And the Eagles, man, come on. Eagles.
Josh King:
I'm a Patriots fan.
King Saladeen:
All day.
Josh King:
Sorry guys.
King Saladeen:
Okay. Okay. Okay.
Josh King:
So my job in the 1990s was I worked in Washington, DC at the White House. We worked closely with the Treasury Department. Then got out of the White House, worked at a PR firm that actually one of its jobs was to help the Treasury Department take their new design of their currency, the new hundreds, the new fifties, the twenties, the new tens, the new fives, and do focus groups with them to say, "Well, we like the design of Franklin here. We like the way the number looks there. We think the anti counterfeiting features work well, or don't work well." How did you look at a $100 bill and say, "That looks like art to me"?
Mister E:
I grew up in New Jersey, actually in Bergen County. When I was five years old, six years old, I believe, I'll never forget, I saw my first $100 bill. It was on my birthday. I remember my grandma like, "This is $100 bill," and giving it to me for my birthday. It was the most amazing thing. I'd thought I could do anything with $100 bill. I thought I was set for life with that $100 bill. Maybe I was seven years old. Yeah. I'll tell you why I know I was seven, because I went into school the next day in second grade to pay for lunch. Lunch was a $1.68. I never forget this. We had to bring money into school every day and pay for lunch. I brought $100 bill.
King Saladeen:
You was the man.
Mister E:
And handed it to the lunch lady at the beginning of the day.
Josh King:
For a buck 68 lunch?
Mister E:
What do you think happened? The teacher said, "Where did you get this? Where's it from?" I told them the story. I had to go to the principal's office and my mom had to pick me up from school. She didn't even know about it. She thought my grandma was crazy easy giving me $100 bill.
Josh King:
So Bergen county to Florida. How did you become an artist along the way?
Mister E:
I was always painting. I always loved art, but I never really thought of it as a career path. In high school, I took college level art classes and it was an excuse to not be in another class. Then I got out of college. I went to work and I was working. I started selling paintings out of a cigar bar locally. They were paintings, like portraits of Frank Sinatra and Elvis and Winston Churchill and stuff. I would hang out with these older 67 year old guys smoking cigars and try and sell them paintings. That was the first time I started making money from the art.
Josh King:
Sinatra, Elvis, Winston Churchill. How did these guys become people that you're trying to do an interpretation on? Because you've done an interpretation of Ben Franklin here. But so many people start looking at, I don't know, the masters as they paint these guys. And say, Mister E, you have a different impression of it.
Mister E:
What's funny is a lot of people don't know that about me, that originally I was painting portraits of people that I felt were icons. I used to sit in my parents' garage with the door closed, a bunch of spray paint cans with tape and rope and spray painting like these abstract paintings. But I realized nobody cared. Then the first time I did a painting of actually my grandfather, and everyone in the family was like, "Wow." I had never done a painting that I guess anyone looked at that you could sell.
Mister E:
Everyone was like, "Oh, you could sell that." That was the first time I ever thought, "Oh, I could actually make money doing this." So even when I was doing the ones at the cigar bar, it was something I enjoyed doing. I thought they were cool. I knew I could do it well. At that point, it was a way for me to make extra money.
Josh King:
There's a saying, King Saladeen, that all athletes want to be musicians and all musicians want to be athletes. Both you and Mister E have grown major followings from both of those worlds. Do the people that you sell your art, do they want to become artists too? The athletes and the business people that display your stuff on their walls?
King Saladeen:
Which is crazy, everybody that I meet turns into an artist. My dad started painting. All of my friends that I've met recently in the last five years, they've all started painting after they come chill me at my studio. It's such a cool space to be in to create. I guess everybody wants to see if they can do something.
Josh King:
Tell me about your studio. What about it allows the mind to wander and journey into new places?
King Saladeen:
Well, actually my studio was inspired by E's studio. I went to E's studio maybe three years ago with my manager Orin. His is ridiculous. His is totally on another level.
Josh King:
I've heard about the E studio. We need to get into that next.
King Saladeen:
It's on another level. So when I started looking for spaces, that's what I had in mind. It was a big open space, a loading dock. Sorry about that.
Josh King:
Everyone needs a loading dock.
King Saladeen:
You need a loading dock. You need a loading dock for paint, for everything. Especially me doing cars. We need to have a place to put these cars and I can work on them all night and stuff like that. So it was inspired by E's spot. It's just crazy. I'm still working on it. I only been there for eight months. So it's coming together.
Josh King:
So you've inspired your dad to pick up a brush.
King Saladeen:
Well, actually my dad is already a carpenter, a master carpenter. So by seeing what I do, painting and things like that, he's starting to draw things and then build what he draws. So we had a conversation, we was coming from one of my client's houses and it was like a compound. You know what I mean? So me being able to bring my dad places, just bringing him here today is between me and him, is like this is crazy. You know what I mean? So we had to talk. He's like, "Yeah, you really came from a dark place used to where you at now."
King Saladeen:
So we started talking about my old neighborhood and he said, "Yo, I'm about to just draw the whole block." I'm like, "Okay." So he actually draws the whole block with the house I grew up in and maybe four or five other houses. Philadelphia row homes. Totally like that. Then a week later he builds it. So I have this and I'm going to show it at my next solo. It's just crazy, but it just shows how just being in a great environment and we just creating, we not worried about nothing until we leave the studio. Bills, life drama. We just vibing out, and then we get to the world when we leave.
Josh King:
You mentioned that the dark place you'd come from. What was that about?
King Saladeen:
Man, just my environment, just my environment. Just being from a inner city in Philadelphia, just an inner city in a country. Most of my friends are locked up and dead and I'm not even an old guy. You know what I'm saying? I'm early thirties. So it's just unreal just to see how far I've come. But I had a great foundation. I think my foundation was a little bit better than my friends and things like that. Had my grandfather, had my dad, I had my mom. I had my solid family base.
King Saladeen:
So when I went outside and there was a bunch of crazy stuff going on, I knew it was wrong. Just probably like everybody else, but I had to come back in and really deal with the consequences of doing something wrong. What I'm doing right now, and my art being represented here is like, you could do anything. Literally anything. I didn't go to an art school. I just had a dream. I played basketball. So it was really I always loved art since a little kid, but me playing basketball felt more regular. It felt like, "Okay, this is something where I'm not going to be a outcast and everybody loves me doing it. And it's pretty fun."
Josh King:
Mister E described how painting portraits of Elvis and Frank Sinatra and Winston Churchill was his training ground. How did you get into it originally? How has your art evolved and how would a dealer or a buyer describe the kind of artist you are today?
King Saladeen:
I remember my mom and my dad, me getting sat down told, "You can't write on the walls no more," because I was just writing on walls in my room. I wasn't really going outside of the room because my safe haven was my room. So I would write on the walls and I would do all this different stuff every day. They would try to white over it and be like, "Yo, stop writing on your walls." Until the time where it came, my mom, my dad sat me down, was like, "Listen, you can just have your room. Do your room, but nothing in the living room, nothing in the kitchen." Then after that point, it was like they turned my creativity to a whole nother level. I felt as though I could do anything in my room and wouldn't get in trouble. So after that, it was ball game.
Josh King:
Mister E, before you embarked on your art career, you worked as a contractor. What is Factor E, and did your past building experience help you create such an expansive workspace that King Saladeen was describing earlier?
Mister E:
I've always been fascinated by building things. A factory, the whole idea was I wanted a space where I could do whatever I wanted. I didn't want to be limited. At that time, I was doing resin on all my paintings. So I wanted a room where I could pour the resin. I wanted a room where I could build a frame. I wanted a room where I could paint. I also wanted a room where I could watch TV and play pool and hang out with my friends. I just little by little.
Josh King:
When are you going to invite me over?
Mister E:
Come on down.
King Saladeen:
So listen. So just by him explaining it. I'm from west Philly, I was hoping to maybe have a basement room, you know what I mean? So when I went to his space, it was like, "Oh, come on."
Mister E:
The first place that I had was 900 square feet. Then I moved into a place that had warehouses connected to it. I little by little just keep taking over the little warehouses.
King Saladeen:
He has a fire engine inside of his studio.
Mister E:
Had a fire engine.
Josh King:
What happened to the fire engine?
Mister E:
We got we got a little more serious now. We don't have room for a fire engine anymore. There's still a eight foot tall box of stuffed animals, though, that you can jump into.
Josh King:
You got to sign a waiver though first.
Mister E:
Absolutely.
Josh King:
Has anyone been injured on this leap into vapid stuffed animals?
King Saladeen:
My manager, my manager.
Mister E:
I don't know if people can see this right now, but man sitting to the left of me. He actually sued me.
King Saladeen:
We have the video.
Mister E:
I have the letter.
Josh King:
You got to be well lawyered up to be in the art world.
Mister E:
Yeah. Well, I got signs when you walk in that you enter at your own risk.
Josh King:
So let's get real here and talk about the economics of these opportunities. Because you're both successful artists, but you're also entrepreneurs. You can be great in the studio, but whether you're dealing with agents and lawyers and gallery owners and people who commission your work, you need to think of it about the bottom line.
King Saladeen:
Well, I'm going to start off.
Mister E:
Yeah. Go for it.
King Saladeen:
All right. Well, before I started taking art totally serious, I was a loan officer years earlier before the recession hit. So one of the things that got me back into art was every time I was closing one of my deals, my refinance, home equity line of credit or something like that, I would go in these people's houses and see art on the walls. Now it would take me back to, "Wow, that's dope. I know I could do that or do it better," while I'm getting these people to sign in these papers.
King Saladeen:
So after the recession hit, I was a loan officer. So I wasn't working for the big country wides and things like that. I was working for the subprime world. We was in the office and no phones would ring after a while. So it was just so crazy. That was the one thing that got me back in the art, because if the mortgage game stayed, and I felt like this is something that is a real job, you know what I mean? Because I never seen an artist before that made money nowhere.
King Saladeen:
So I felt like the real estate world was my world. So by me making cold calls for years, closing deals, talking to people over the phone, never meeting them until the closing. Now I was able to sell a product that I had to learn about. I'm the product. So it is so much easier, and I've done real business where I understand the codes of business.
Mister E:
I was listening to your question. I had a one answer. I'm listening to his answer to your question. I started making me think about a couple other things. I set out as an artist with the mindset that I need to treat it as a business. But I feel like that's not the goal of being an artist as a business. But in order to survive or thrive as an artist, you better be good. But that's anything. That's why I look at, I say money isn't real. It's a tool that we use in everyday life.
Mister E:
So to me, my art is actually explaining that. That I'm creating my own money. I know every time I show someone, one of these colorful bills, they just smile. They might be smiling because they think it's stupid, but they're smiling. They're not mad. But some people get super excited when they see them. The whole idea is to basically have a way to distribute my message and what I'm trying to do in my art. It's not really about me. It's about as many people in the world recognizing my version of a colorful $100 bill and the message behind it.
Josh King:
One thing I noticed about both you guys, when I first met you at the New York Stock Exchange several months ago, is that you're both holding your smartphones. Your team is here too, and they're holding up their smartphones. I'm not sure what's getting shot as a still picture, what's made into a video. But what I do realize a couple days later, as we announce that we're going to do this exhibition of your art here on the sixth floor of the New York Stock Exchange, is that you've posted videos on YouTube and Snapchat and Twitter. You can talk about the extensive followings that you both have, but you've both created brands in the social media world. King Saladeen, when you were a loan officer prior to the economic crisis, there was no Snap. There was no Twitter. There was YouTube maybe in its nascent moments. But how has social media allowed you guys to thrive from your various locations?
Mister E:
I'm currently in a position right now where I have to say what he did on the last question and say, I got to go first. Because I got to vent.
Josh King:
Go.
Mister E:
I'm on right now, almost a one month social media detox vacation. I got to tell you, my mind is completely messed up right now because I'm loving it so much. I'm really realizing I'm starting to look at what's in front of me. When I mean that, I mean by in real life and not on my phone and really just talk to people and enjoy conversations. Then today I'm walking in here and I'm like, "How can I not video? What do I do in here?" I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Social media is a part of what we do. Yeah, I'll admit it. It's probably been the greatest tool, just like money can be a tool like I'm saying, to get to this position. I'm here to tell you, I post a couple things today, but I'm not sure if I'm going right back. I don't know.
Josh King:
Will business suffer if you go quiet?
Mister E:
Maybe business will flourish. So far I'm doing pretty good
Josh King:
Saladeen, but this is definitely extending your brand beyond Philadelphia.
King Saladeen:
Yeah, definitely. Social media is one of the biggest things ever. But one of the things that helps me is I come from the era of when it wasn't a social media. So I know how to get out and hustle and make relationships and talk to people and network and all of that stuff. I think the social media just highlights that part of my grind. I don't think I'm going to be taking a hiatus, but I understand why he's taking a hiatus. Some days I think about it.
Mister E:
The social media, there's nothing wrong with Instagram. It's how you approach it and how you use it. I think like Warhol said in the future, everyone's going to have their 15 minutes of fame. He was taking pictures of everything everywhere and walking around with a camera. But there was no cell phones. There was no Instagram then, but he sort of called it. It's true. It's easy to get famous now. It's not hard to get famous. It's hard to stay famous and it's hard to make money being famous because there's a lot of broke, famous people.
Josh King:
Both of you guys at some point went from your garages, your first efforts in art, to a different plateau. You didn't do it alone, or maybe you can tell me you did do it alone. What would you identify as that turning point in your artistic career as the people who helped set you on a better course? Both of you tell me a story about how your careers went from one level to another.
King Saladeen:
Well, I'ma start it off just because July 4th, 2011 was when I left my job. Walked out of my cold turkey. Maybe had $400 saved up somewhere in my house. I think that's when it turned on. Because I always did art. I always sold pieces for a few hundred bucks to people that was somewhat around me. When Instagram started, I was posting art. My family members would buy art. My friends, people I worked with at the time would buy little things of art.
King Saladeen:
But the job that I left was after real estate. This was a job that I was working with kids pretty much in the judicial system in Philadelphia, kids that were locked up. So I started an art program with the kids while I was working with them. I was doing anything that was going to help my day go faster and make these kids stop fighting all day. So that was the biggest thing. When I left my job, it was totally like, "I have to do this. I have to do this, because I'm never trying to do another job situation again."
Josh King:
Were there people or mentors that helped you make that big jump or this is all yourself?
King Saladeen:
No, it was my best friend. My best friend that passed away from cancer, JP. So he always told me to quit my job. Everybody else was like, "You got a job," because you got to understand my environment. If I'm not selling drugs, I'm not locked up, I'm doing good. So my thing was, I was trying to just go to work, save up some money to do what I wanted to do. After I set up pretty much the art program in there for the kids to stop tripping it all day, that was when I said, "Yo, this is bigger than I can see." So I see my friend JP, my family, they always was supportive and me meeting Orin and PCNY, my management is just godsend.
Josh King:
So Mister E, you get inducted into the Modern Art Hall of Fame. Who's the first person that you think in that induction ceremony?
Mister E:
Yeah, I would think my family. Yeah. I remember the first time my dad said something to me when I was selling a painting. I could tell you, he was really interested. It was the first time he was like, "Wow, you're actually ... maybe there's something in this. You could actually make money doing this." When I started, I didn't even believe that I was really going to do this as a career. I was trying to make it like a business while I was doing it. I sold a lot of prints at the beginning because I was like, "Oh, it'll take me less time to do. I can do more of them. Spread it quicker."
Mister E:
But when I really knew that this was what I was going to do and what probably changed the course of my life, I did a portrait for Floyd Mayweather, and I think he's done a few things for him too. That was in the portrait era of when I was working. I had just started coming up with the money concept. I'll never forget. I went to Vegas to the Mayweather Boxing Club to deliver the painting in person. That was when that was like, it was a real big deal to me. I went there and one of his guys in his camp was like, "Oh, look, another painting of himself."
Mister E:
I'm like, "Did he really just say that?" I worked so hard on this. It's not another painting of himself.
Josh King:
Did Floyd get it? Did Floyd understand? Of course he-
Mister E:
Oh, he didn't say ... no, no, he loved it. No, he actually really appreciate. It was a painting. Everyone always does boxing paintings of people knocking the other person out. I did the painting of him. I realize I'm going to do something different. So I actually put him in his defensive pose, which he's known for. I used to box and all that. So I was really into it. Then I did that and I put gold tick marks for all his fights that he had won and I gave him this gold pen. I said, it was the week before the next fight. I said, "After the fight, you put another tick mark on there." That was on his 44th fight, I think.
Mister E:
But going back to when his friend made that comment and my first thought my mind was, "You know what?" I was mad at him, but then I was like, "Wait a minute, maybe he's right. I'm not going to get anywhere trying to get ..." because that was the idea when I started, "I'm going to get to all these celebrities and do paintings of them and get a picture of me and the celebrity. Then everyone's going to think I'm a big deal." You got to admit that was, in 2012, '13-
Josh King:
That was a blueprint.
Mister E:
Yeah, that was a blueprint. Exactly. So I did that. When this happened, I took my phone out and I showed him a picture of these. Actually my brother showed him the picture, Floyd. He goes, "This is something that my brother's working on." We're both standing right there. He goes, "Now, that's what I want. That's hot." He did not want the other one. The other one's hanging up in his house too.
Mister E:
So I made a deal with him and he got the last two seven foot long versions of these, and they were hung up in his gym and then they were background to Show Time, All Access and stuff. That was the moment where it was like, "Whoa, now they're mainstream."
Mister E:
I don't know, this is a little while ago, but a couple months after that happened, I woke up to a message from Miley Cyrus on Instagram that she wanted paintings and some done with the bills. So I was like, "If you can take someone like Floyd Mayweather and someone like Miley Cyrus and they like the same thing, you know you're doing something right." Because that's the goal with everything that I do is I want it to appeal to you. I want it to appeal to him. I want appeal to him. Everyone should see something of themself, take their own meaning in the art.
Josh King:
We don't have any seven foot versions of your art here at the New York Stock Exchange. I think we have a lot of wall space, but we don't have a seven foot space left over. But I would say that the works you have on display here are what, and I'm no art critic, but I would describe them as traditional pieces. But you guys both dabble in a variety of mediums. What's the most interesting item, King Saladeen, that you've been commissioned to paint?
King Saladeen:
It has to be one of them cars.
Josh King:
Tell me about that.
King Saladeen:
My first car was a Rolls Royce Ghost. So that was the company car for PCNY. But that wasn't hand painted. That was wrapped off of a painting. So then another opportunity came after that because people were seeing it and they thought I painted it. So after that, somebody was like, "Yo, you got to paint my car." I literally had to paint the car at Art Basel. So it was dope. It was scary at the same time. But it has to be one of these cars, because if you would've asked me even any age, "Do you think you'll be able to paint a supercar or drive one, get in one, be around one?" From where I'm from, I couldn't have told you that. I would've been like, "Nah."
Josh King:
What cars have the best services for painting?
King Saladeen:
They all do. They all do just because we get them wrapped first. So we're not going strictly on the paint. We're getting them wrapped. So it's nice and smooth. It's kind of like a dope canvas actually. So it got to be the cars, it got to be the cars.
Josh King:
Mister E, what do you think about it?
Mister E:
I would say my most valuable to me and most interesting piece of artwork is probably the original $100 bill that started all this. I had it cast in 100 pound block of Lucite and it sits inside of a safe in the factory. To me it's the foundation for everything that I've done. But I've done some really weird things. Somebody gave me a Chick-fil-A French fry box on a Saturday and I made a piece of art out of it for Sunday, because Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday. I took a Glenlivet box, a display box that held six bottles, and painted the box and then put the French fry thing in there.
Mister E:
I've done pizza boxes. I like to take in real things and just putting $100 bill on them. Then people just say, my first release I ever made on my website was just a brown paper bag with $100 bill painted on it. Then people get mad and they're like, "But it's just a brown paper bag with $100 bill on." I'm like, "That's the point." But now those brown paper bags, I sold them for, I think the first ones I sold for 400 bucks or something. There's one on eBay for like two grand.
Josh King:
Has the Treasury Department come after you at all on these?
Mister E:
No. I was actually just visit the Federal Reserve in Atlanta and getting a little tour. They know about it though. Some people in some high places have these bills in their pockets. I think it's pretty obvious I'm not counterfeiting it. We're sitting here in the New York Stock Exchange, right?
Josh King:
Yeah, we are.
King Saladeen:
This is pretty amazing.
Josh King:
After the break, our conversation with Mister E and King Saladeen will turn to the air work and how it came to the walls of the New York Stock Exchange. Pow.
Speaker 1:
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Josh King:
Welcome back. Today we're joined by King Saladeen and Mister E, two artists whose work are part of the New York Stock Exchange's art exhibition, Art and Money, that will be part of the Big Board Club experience for the next year. So guys, what led you both to explore business and money as the topic of your artwork?
King Saladeen:
Really, because my best friend ... the reason why I picked the bear to be one of my biggest logos was because my best friend seen it and was going crazy. He seen all my artwork and never went crazy for some reason. The biggest thing in the hood and everywhere is just trying to get out, trying to make some money, trying to have a vision that will make you some money. So that's why one of the bear's eyes is always have a dollar bill and the other one has a cross because money's a part of the vision, but it's not the total vision. So that's how it came about with the money bear. Because I've tried to do everything to make money almost.
Josh King:
And what does the cross mean?
King Saladeen:
Oh, pretty much it's just up to you. Whatever your span is that you're trying to accomplish. Because end of the day, if you want to be a doctor, if you want to be a lawyer, if you want to work at the Stock Exchange, you are thinking about how much money you're going to make to sustain your family and where you want to live and all that other good stuff. So one of the visions always got to be about sustaining your family, which is the money. The other is whatever your thing is. So I wanted to lead that open to the person who bought the painting, who's looking at the painting and things like that.
Josh King:
Mister E?
Mister E:
It's not about money. It's about showing the impact that money does have on everyone. What King just said is exactly the point. No matter what you do, your world revolves around providing for your family. Sending your kids to school. You want them to get piano lessons. You want them to drive in a safe car. You want them to go to camp. We're all doing this stuff for the right reason. The money's not the bad thing. I love being here at the Stock Exchange because when I come in here, I feel like I'm at home. Because I feel like it's a bunch of people that some people look at and say, "Oh, all they care about is money." But this is how the world works.
Josh King:
Not the first time both of you have collaborated beyond this exhibition. This is just the most recent time you've been working together. In a field known for expression in an individualistic pursuit, both of you have your own studios. How did you two meet originally and decide that what both of you're doing complemented one another?
Mister E:
We met through Orin and PCNY. Our timeline's pretty similar. We've been through, wow, it's three, four years now, we probably know each other.
King Saladeen:
That's how it happened. Met through Orin. We met on some regular, not like artists, artists, chill. It was more like we was around each other and I'm like, "Damn, boy, pretty cool." Because I met artists before and they would be totally not like me because I played basketball my whole life. So I'm totally not the regular art guy, especially not talking about certain things. I talk about everything. I'm talking about ESPN stuff more than probably art until it's time to really explain my vision or what I'm doing.
King Saladeen:
But I was around him maybe for a summer before we even really started being cool. So I was just already digging him as a person, loved his artwork. Then he inspired me by me walking in his space and I think that's how it friends meet. You know what I mean? In the real world. So all this Instagram and everything we doing here is just icing on a cake and it just works good because he is a cool dude.
Mister E:
It was cool, though. So when you talk about that first time that they came down to the studio in Florida, that was two weeks. There was no plan and anything. We were just hanging out every night, we're all ordering food. We're painting and just walking around. We had 20, 30 foot canvas on the ground that we just walk up to, add a little something to, walk away. Everyone's just walking around. Everyone did whatever they wanted. Well, we were doing whatever we want.
King Saladeen:
For me E, the biggest thing was, so we go down there, we work, we chilling. E has clients coming in like clockwork. So he's like, "Yo Him, I got one of my clients. They really love your work." Artists don't do that. You know what I mean? People that are in the same lane usually don't do that unless you're a really good person. One of the people that he put me onto was one of my biggest collectors. This guy owns maybe 15 pieces from me. But it happened from that night being in his studio and E really saying ... because people would say, "Yo, I love his work. Give me his number."
King Saladeen:
You'd be like, "Okay, I ain't really cool with him, but I'll talk to him." He literally called me, was like, "Yo bro, have Orin get on it because this dude's serious buyer and he loves your work."
Mister E:
You want to help other artists? You want to assemble basically the dream team of the generation. That's another reason I became an artist.
Josh King:
King Saladeen, you mentioned, I think one of your patrons has 13 pieces of your art. Do you know how many different countries your art is displayed in right now? Any sense of that?
King Saladeen:
Right now, I know it's Russia. Russia, I'm getting a big rush from Russia. China, we just did a mural out there. I have two collectors in China, Indonesia, Germany.
Josh King:
But bunch of places.
King Saladeen:
Yeah, blessed.
Josh King:
So how did you guys originally get drawn to the New York Stock Exchange? How did this exhibition come about?
King Saladeen:
Peter. My man Peter.
Josh King:
Tell me about your relationship with Peter.
Mister E:
Peter. So I'll tell you, this is funny. I was talking about this the other day with someone. This is probably four years ago or something. I remember getting a message from this guy. I was like looking at the pictures of him and the profile. I'm like, "Wow." I remember showing the message to him. I'm like, "Look, he's the most photographed man on Wall Street." I'm reading these articles. He sent me a message. He said, "Listen, if you're ever in New York, I want you to come down to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and I'll give you a tour." I was actually going to New York the next week. I told him, I was like, "Yeah, I'd love to." I said, "Can I bring a painting?"
Mister E:
So he said, "Yeah, sure." So I actually brought, the first time I ever came here ... Oh, and it was funny because that was right when I was ... he always laughed me when I walk in here with whatever I'm dressed in because I remember he made a comment to me, "Make sure you're wearing a suit.: The first time I came here. So I wore a suit with a tie and a button down. I felt so uncomfortable. I'm like, "Man, this is why I became an artist. So I don't have to wear a suit."
Mister E:
Then I noticed he was wearing sneakers. I was like, "Oh, he's walking around." So every time I've come here, I think I've pushed the boundaries a little bit on the dress code. But yeah, I came in, walking in with the painting. I have a picture of me and him standing in front of the CNBC desk with a giant, I think it was a six foot long, golden black $100 bill. That was it. He was just a really, really cool guy. Then little by little, I think he was always really interested in art to become a passion to his.
Josh King:
So King Saladeen, you're going to have to describe what Peter Tuchman looks like and whether his very looks should be an inspiration or a muse for you guys, because you've got to do a portrait of Peter Tuchman.
King Saladeen:
We got to. We got to, because that cartoon him is on. That's on. It's on the dot. But me meeting Peter, it started through E. So E introduced to him, I guess, to the art when they met. I guess he probably was following E's page or just was following me at the time and was just said the same thing. "Yo, I want you to come down to the Stock Exchange. I met with Mister E." I knew E already. So he said, "I think you guys are friends. Come on down."
Mister E:
I think at the beginning, I don't think he really thought it was going to turn into what it's turned into. I don't even know if he thought I was going to respond to him and be like, "Yeah, sure. I'm actually going to be there on Tuesday."
Josh King:
King Saladeen, Peter Tuchman helped introduce you guys to us. Has put aside this hallway that is now becoming our exhibition wall, our wall of artists. The three of you are our inaugural occupants of that wall. Art is on display for everyone coming to the Exchange to see. But there's a little disconnect because one of your major images that you paint, King Saladeen, is not the animal that we commonly associate with optimism on the Stock Exchange, which is the bull. In fact, it's the bear. Why is the bear your or icon? Can we at least implore you to think about a bull series?
King Saladeen:
Well, actually that's why I put the bull of the market here. Because I had that in my studio for a while that I was doing for Peter before the situation happened. I had to put that in there because I just couldn't bear out the walls, you know what I mean? But it's my logo because my best friend before he passed, he was so attracted to this bear that I was designing, and it came in the darkest part of my life. I started doing it and it was inspired by the Kanye West Dropout bear because I had that CD cover in my book bag every day for some odd reason. So I always looked at it and was like, "Yo, I can make this bear cooler." But the bear isn't no offense to anything going on in here because he loves bulls.
Josh King:
bulls and bears.
King Saladeen:
He loves bulls. You know what I'm saying? He's not that type of bear. He's not a ...
Josh King:
Mister E, you were talking about some of the people who've commissioned your art, including people like Floyd Mayweather and Miley Cyrus. But your work is collected by so many other people, including the Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Roberts, who requested a custom piece featuring one of the rarest bills ever produced by the US Mint. How did that come about?
King Saladeen:
Wow, E.
Mister E:
John Roberts. So it's an interesting story. The $10,000 bill is the only one with the Chief Justice on it. It's Salmon Chase. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. So what I did with that one, when I made that for him, it was a $10,000 bill. Then the serial number was actually his inauguration date. So you didn't know that unless you looked at it, but the serial number, I was staring at the painting. I'm like, "What can I do to make him ..." So here's the thing. From the Mayweather thing, what I learned was, this is going to get me somewhere. If I have people at this level collecting something that I'm recognized for. That's why the whole portrait, the move from the portrait to the $100 bill came about. That's why I still up doing the portraits and focus completely on the bill, because I knew it was really captivating.
Mister E:
So I knew I had to do a bill with him, and then I knew it had to have meaning. So I take the serial number and made it his inauguration date. The colors are crimson, copper and black. What made me more excited was I actually made these colored bills a little bit before I had done the painting for him. But I had never given him one. I got the chance to see him again about a year after I had presented him with the painting and I showed him a bill and he just loved it. He said the same thing that you guys said. "Oh, nobody's contacted you yet?" I'm just sitting there and I'm like, "Oh hey, well I'll just tell them you got one if anyone ever says anything." He looks at me and just smiled. One of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. Just most genuine, real person.
Josh King:
And you stay in touch with the Chief Justice and do more work for him or ...
Mister E:
I would love to. It's not like we're calling other every day to play golf, but that was established through a very close friend of mine that's pretty close with them.
Josh King:
So we've been on this long journey together, gentlemen. King Saladeen, Mister E. We've been talking about your work that is visible for those who can come to the Exchange, who can look at our art exhibition on the sixth floor. But if they aren't at Floyd Mayweather's house, at Miley Cyrus's house or in the chambers of Chief Justice John Roberts, how best King Saladeen to know your work, follow you, understand what you're up to, keep connected with you on a regular basis?
King Saladeen:
Well, my website is for everybody that's not on social media and things like that. It's ww.KingSaladeenArt.com. Social media is King Saladeen. I'm not on Twitter too much. Really through my website and things like that. We have a deal coming out with Champion and the next month. So that's going to be more of a broader situation where kids can go into foot actions and buy stuff and things like that. So it's just not like when I drop stuff, it's going to be more out there. Through my manager Orin, PCNY or my website. I have a company Create Motivate Inspire. That's on Instagram too as well.
Josh King:
Mister E?
Mister E:
Shot myself in the foot earlier with that whole Instagram vacation thing, but I'm going to go ahead and just say Mister E on Instagram. @MisterE, M-I-S-T-E-R_E. Or my website, www.MisterEArt.com. I'll read the email and I will reply back personally. I would love to hear people's thoughts.
Josh King:
Mister E, King Saladeen. Thanks so much for joining us in the ICE House.
King Saladeen:
Honor for being here.
Mister E:
Thank you very much.
King Saladeen:
Thanks.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week. If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. If you've got a comment or question you'd like one of our experts to tackle in a futures show, email us at [email protected] or tweeting us at NYSE. Our show is produced by Pete Ash and Ian Wolf with production assistance from Ken Abel and Steve Portner. I'm Josh king, your host signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next time.
Speaker 1:
Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of this information and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content here in. All of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or recommendation of any security or trading practice.
